Same-Day Moving, Home Staging and House Clearing

What We Did

Dr. Mandel retired from a thriving family practice, where his wife worked at his side as receptionist and office manager. When she developed dementia, he tried to cope at home but she was increasingly confused, missing meals, sleeping all day and wandering all night, and was brought home by the police more than once. Many of their friends had moved into a certain retirement home, which recommended me.

At the home visit, we went through the checklist and timing, and arranged packing and moving dates. Packing day went smoothly and I left the Mandels looking forward to the big day. But when I arrived with the movers, a haggard Mrs. Mandel opened the door – she had been up all night unpacking and putting everything away! A phone call later, I drove them to the retirement home for a few days in a guest suite while we started packing all over again.

Part of the move entailed measuring the suite, getting some new, smaller furniture, twin beds and bookcases and getting the favourite sports channels on cable TV. A key element of working with dementia clients is ensuring their new surrounding as familiar, do photos were taken of the home and, despite new furniture, pictures, colours, linens and accessories were carefully arranged to be familiar to Mrs. Mandel – in fact, on move-in day, she sat down on a recliner, saying “oh, I’ve always loved this old chair”. The antiques that would not fit were sold by a dealer, unwanted clothes were picked up by a charity and the remainder removed by a junk service. Dr. Mandel has since died, but his wife is safe, well cared for and in comfortable surroundings.

What it Cost

All ElderCareCanada services are billed at an hourly rate, on a fee-for-service basis.

In this case the Mandels paid for 10 hours of packing, 6 hours for moving, 6 hours for unpacking and setup, and movers at $75/hour moving rate. Clearing the house was another 10 hours, as well as junk-removal at $500/truckload. Their suite was left in broom-swept condition, ready for the new owners.

No contingency or retainer fees are charged, and does not pay or accept commissions, contingency fees, kick-backs or gratuities of any kind. Clients are encouraged to check their employee benefits package, as these services may be covered under their Employee Assistance Plan.

Our Clients Say

“Pat Irwin provided her outstanding leadership, expertise, advice, compassion and experience in helping me, and my 81 year old mother, to deal with my mother’s re-location from her own house to a Retirement Home. Pat is totally “client focused” – she has the experience and intuition to completely understand (and predict) her client’s needs and to be able to provide advice and solutions. Many of these issues are quite challenging emotionally – both for parent and “child” – and she is able to professionally and practically guide her clients through these complex issues to an effective resolution. She intuitively “understands” how to approach these kinds of difficult issues. Pat can handle everything for you – and I mean “everything”.

Relocation of a parent involves an enormous amount of work and a million details – from going through all the stuff in the current house and disposing of it to the appropriate place, dealing with the parents’ emotion around this whole issue, getting the house ready to be sold, and transitioning the parent safely and happily to the new home, getting all the details of the new home set up, on and on it goes. Pat ensures that every detail is attended to – quickly, perfectly and as stress free for her clients as it is possible to achieve. Every aspect was perfectly done – the cleaning up and sorting, pack-up, the move, the setup of my mother’s new room, etc. She is incredibly efficient.

I would not have survived this experience without Pat (nor would my mother.) I am a single professional working woman and am now an only child having to deal with my mother’s issues. I did not have the time or expertise – and Pat took all the worry away for both my mum and me. We relied on her totally and wouldn’t hesitate to highly recommend her.”

– Ginnie Welsman, Vice-President Audit Services, Sunlife Financial